to venture into solar energy. The company is expected to announce plans for building solar power projects in the Indian states of Gujarat and Rajasthan sometime this year. Suzlon Energy chairman and managing director Tulsi R Tanti had earlier said that India offers “enormous opportunity” for both solar and wind power projects....

oil markets an early lift. The headlines were carbon copies of past years as Russia again shut down natural gas supplies to Ukraine, causing much anxiety to Europe and soul searching as to why they still do business with Moscow. Israel bombed Gaza, killing hundreds of civilians, while the world pondered and then worried if...

successful commercial aviation test flight using “sustainable second-generation” jatropha-based biofuel last week. The company said that more than a dozen key performance tests were undertaken in the two-hour test flight from Auckland International Airport. A biofuel blend of 50:50 jatropha and Jet A1 fuel was used to power one of the Air New Zealand Boeing...

megawatt (MW) Amlan hydroelectric power plant after submitting the highest bid in the Philippine government’s final sale schedule for 2008. State agency Power Sector Assets and Liabilities Management Corporation (PSALM) said ICS Renewables offered US$230,000 for the Visayas-based hydropower facility. The winning bid exceeded the reserve price set by the PSALM Board for the generating...

storage terminals and tanks to fill up as it attempts to take advantage of low oil prices. The General Chamber of Commerce estimates that private firms have enough capacity to store up to 200 million tonnes of crude oil. The stored oil will form part of the country’s strategic petroleum reserves. Crude oil now cost...

(ONGC), is proceeding with its bid to take over Russia’s Imperial Energy in a US$2 billion cash deal. However, ONGC still has the option to drop the deal if its bid it does not obtain 90% of acceptance from Imperial shareholders. ONGC is believed to be ready to walk away from the deal which was...

counting in offshore vessels as global oil demand has fallen in the wake of  the economic crisis. Iran has also been forced to take up storage in terminals in the Netherlands and Japan. As the second-largest oil producer in the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Iran is hurting from the sharp fall in oil...

(EnergyAsia, January 2, Friday) — The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is planning to upgrade two of its refineries in Ruwais and Jebel Ali to meet its growing oil demand. The upgrade of the 400,000 b/d Ruwais plant is expected to be completed in late 2011 while the Jebel Ali project will be completed later this...

(EnergyAsia, January 2, Friday) — China has set up a national centre to manage the country’s strategic petroleum reserves (SPR). Reporting to the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the centre will decide on when to release or refill the oil stockpiles, and monitor supply and demand in China and the world. The SPRs bases...

(EnergyAsia, January 2, Friday) — Engineering giant Foster Wheeler Ltd said its subsidiary, Foster Wheeler International Corporation (Thailand branch), has been awarded contracts to help build a new chemicals facility at Banchang, near Map Ta Phut in Thailand. Foster Wheeler said it has also been awarded a contract for overall services support.  The contracts were...

(EnergyAsia, January 2, Friday) — Thai upstream company PTT Exploration and Production Public Company Ltd said its wholly owned Australian subsidiary has agreed to fully acquire Coogee Resources Ltd (CRL), a privately held upstream company based in Western Australia for $170 million in cash. PTTEP said CRL had net debt of approximately US$243 million as...

(EnergyAsia, January 2, Friday) — Russia and Europe have been jockeying hard for the oil and gas riches in the Caspian Sea over the past year, but the real winner may be China. Despite intense wooing, neither Turkmenistan nor Azerbaijan have acceded to Russian offers to buy their natural gas at market prices. Russian gas...

(EnergyAsia, January 2, Friday) — An integrated series of solutions will be required to manage increases in global energy demand and greenhouse gas emissions that will result from population growth and economic expansion, Exxon Mobil Corporation said in releasing its updated Outlook for Energy: A View to 2030. The Outlook for Energy is developed annually,...

(EnergyAsia, January 2, Friday) — Japanese trading house Itochu Corp said it and US oilseed processing giant Bunge Group will invest $800 million to build a bioethanol plant in Tocantins in northern Brazil. Due to begin operating in 2010, the plant has the capacity to crush up to 4.2 million tons of sugar cane, starting...

(EnergyAsia, January 2, Friday) — British major BP is making progress in exiting from its complicated shareholding and business in the Caspian Pipeline Consortium that owns and operates a pipeline delivering Kazakh and Russian crude to a terminal on the Black Sea. Last month, it agreed to sell its 19% stake in a joint venture...

oil stockpile despite growing public complaints that its retail stations are frequently out of supplies. Ironically, the number of complaints has risen since oil prices began their sharp descent from July when crude reached a record of more than $147 a barrel in early July. CPC, the island’s main oil company, has been reluctant to...

up to the proposed Nabucco line to deliver oil and gas from the Caspian region, thereby reducing Europe’s dependence on Russia. The project has the support of the European Union and the US which are increasingly worried by Russia’s stranglehold on energy supplies to its neighbours and the West. Turkmenistan is an important piece in...

Uygur could be turned into a national strategic petroleum reserve (SPR) base, said analysts.   Built, owned and operated by CNPC subsidiary Xinjiang Oilfield Corp, the terminal in Shanshan county in eastern Xinjiang will have the country’s largest storage capacity of eight million cubic metres when it is fully built up over a 32-hectare site...

Moscow to form the Gas Exporting Countries Forum.   The new cartel will include the world’s leading five natural gas producers, Russia, Iran, Qatar, Venezuela and Algeria, which control two thirds of the world’s reserves and 42% of total production. Russia, Iran and Venezuela are firmly in the anti-West camp. “Gas OPEC” will be headquartered...

prices will fall as world production will rise by 30% by end-2009. The Houston-based firm, which tracks and analyses LNG markets, said 2.8 trillion cubic feet of new LNG production capacity will come onstream in the first half of 2009, if all projects remain on schedule. “While 2009 will start slow, we expect a 30%...

the recent sharp decline in crude oil prices on international markets. Oil prices are hovering around $37 a barrel, down from their peak of more than $147 in July. Traders said that China has already pumped some 7.3 million barrels of Saudi crude into the Huangdao base, near Qingdao city on its east coast.  ...

presence in Peru’s energy industry. The South American country already accounts for more than 60% of SK’s total crude oil reserves of 510 million barrels. Underlining Peru’s growing importance to the Korean firm, group chairman Chey Tae-won has made several visits to Lima to meet with senior officials including Peruvian President Alan Garcia to discuss...

started production ahead of schedule, said engineering giant Foster Wheeler Ltd which helped design and build the plant. Foster Wheeler said the work was undertaken by the UK and Singapore subsidiaries of its Global Engineering and Construction Group. The new 120,000-tonne-per-year plant, which is already running at capacity, will supply customers in Asia where demand...

Oil Corp, and rival Nippon Mining Holdings will yield as much as 60-billion-yen in cost savings by 2013. (US$1=90 yen). The companies said they will trim a massive combined 400,000 b/d in surplus refining capacity or a fifth of their combined capacity by April 2012. That would equal to around eight percent of Japan’s total...

Singapore’s Keppel Offshore and Marine Limited, said it has decided to terminate the MPU heavy lifter project and start the scrapping process of the concrete hull. The company said it chose this course after evaluating all possible options on the cancelled 140-million euro order. (US$1=0.71 euro). MPU Offshore Lift ASA had ordered the construction of...